When Lathrop’s Jaleiyah Ray toed the free-throw line of a tied game Tuesday night with three-tenths of a second remaining in overtime, the Spartans had missed eight of their last 14 free throws down the stretch of their opening-round Division IV NorCal game with No. 14 Hillsdale.

Greg Leland Gym went silent as Ray attempted her first of two shots from the charity line that went off the mark. The silence didn’t last long, as Ray got the shooter’s roll on her second attempt, giving No. 3 Lathrop the thrilling 43-42 win.

“I was nervous,” Ray said. “Being in that position having to win the game is very nerve-racking. I’m glad I was able to come through.

“That second one bounced off the top of the rim, then it went back and then in. It was a blessing that I made it.”

Ray (nine rebounds, six points, steal) was at the line because she intercepted and inbounds pass with 4.5 seconds remaining from the wing of the Fighting Knights (18-9) of San Mateo and drove to outside her 3-point line and fired up a desperation shot as time expired. When the pandemonium subsided, Ray was ruled to have been fouled on the floor and not while shooting, which awarded her two free throws and not the three had she been shooting. Fortunately for the Spartans (31-1), she only needed two.

Shakara Porter (12 points, seven rebounds, two steals) came up big in the extra period with two rebounds, a steal and two free throws.

“At first, I feel like we were a little in our heads,” Porter said. “But after halftime, we pulled through as a team and saw one of our freshmen Breanna (Wiseman) got the hype back up and we powered through at the end.”

Wiseman was big underneath for Lathrop with 13 points, six rebounds, four blocks and three steals, including back-to-back toward the end of the first half.

“When we first came in, we were expecting a lot more running,” Wiseman said. “And that got us off our game a little bit.

“When we settled in after halftime, we were able to go on run and we communicated well. We were cheering each other on, especially the bench, and mentally we were there.”

The Spartans trailed 24-15 at halftime and held Hillsdale to 14 second-half points.

“That’s why there are two halves in basketball,” Lathrop coach Dwayne Davis said. “The second half, we came out and tightened up defense because we had quit what we were doing well and started going random, and Hillsdale is great at random. They scramble their tails off, and they can push up on you defensively.

“We needed to start going to what was our bread and butter all year, which was getting the ball to our post players and operating off of that. Once we were able to start getting the ball in, we started clearing the lanes and getting a little bit better looks.”

The Spartans limited the fighting Knights to just five third-period points.

“What I love that we did in the second half was putting Faith Butler in on 33 (Kiara Nitao), and that changed the game and changed all the momentum defensively. She has been waiting all year to get out on the floor, and she had an outstanding game.”

Butler (four points, two rebounds, steal) held high-octane Nitao (18 points) to just five second-half points before Nitao banked in a desperation buzzer-beating 3-pointer to send the game into overtime.

“Coming into the game, I realized we needed to turn up the intensity,” Butler said. “I felt that I needed to take initiative and play really good defense.

“I feel that defense wins games, and despite us doing good offensively, we needed to have that defense and I worked hard to turn it up.”

Lathrop will host No. 6 University Prep of Redding on Thursday at 7 p.m.